Slapped: Oz TV show spikes Dutch freetard site

Netherlands-based BitTorrent site Diwana.org is no more, reportedly following action from Australian copyright attack dog AFACT.

According to TV Tonight, the freetard host was smacked down after Australian production company Matchbox Pictures (acquired earlier this year by NBC) found it to be the parent of another unauthorised site, ViewTheSlapOnline (also gone), allowed people to view The Slap* online.

Diwana pitched itself as “hunting out the best Australian and New Zealand TV and bringing it to you”, with the possibly-disingenuous claim that since it had existed for more than five years, rights-holders didn’t object to it.

Diwana has posted its communications with Netherlands anti-piracy group The BREIN Foundation here. The site’s operator, who goes by the handle fr3ak, complains that he does not “have the resources to fight any legal action”, and claims that he only created the site so that expat Australians and New Zealanders could watch shows from home without waiting for local broadcasters to cut deals.

Matchbox clearly has an eye to the possible value of the shows in Europe, with the BBC and the Sundance Channel signed on for The Slap.

The site also hosted other local programs like Packed to the Rafters and Wild Boys.

Other sites like Acrossthetasman.com reportedly still host torrents of similar programs and can presumably expect the legal letters to start arriving sometime soon. ®

*Note: I can’t understand why anyone wanted a torrent of The Slap. It suffers from exactly the tedious self-conscious “artful” seriousness that’s devastated Australian cinema for a couple of decades. ®